How can you tell if MS "shut off" your XP OS?

[KWW]

Before I do brain surgery on my Windows XP Pro PC (with SP2), I thought I
should ask the question I almost hate to hear the answer to: how can I tell
if my PC's problem is simply that MS "shut down" my PC when I did the last
Security update?

1) I had verified (voluntarily) that the OS is authentic when they first had
the program because I though it might be cool to try their free SW that they
used as a carrot. (No problems there.)

2) However, with the February update, after I'd had SP2 on the system, three
of the patches caused problems (so I had to back them out). One was to IE 6
(it locked up IE and Windows Explorer), the 2nd and 3rd ones were to XP...
The February problem ones were referenced to:
KB867282
KB891781 (Explorer problem)
KB888223

So I had been installing later updates but skipping these.

----------
Here is what happened just before it died: Finished last update/install.
Click to reboot (OK, fine) just before clicking OK I closed a file manager
(Win Explorer) window that was open, then clicked OK. While it was
shutting down I got a popup that it could not close Explorer.exe and said
"End Now" or "Wait". I clicked "Wait" a few times as it came back... then
"End Now" a few times as it (still) came back, so finally I simply held in
the power button and shut down. It has not made it back up since. I can
see the contents of the drive if I use Repair Console (or whatever it is
called...) or if I make the drive a slave in another system, but I cannot
boot in Safe, normal or ANY mode on that drive.


=========== ==============
Here on is from my previous post on the subject.... I am hesitant to try
these things since I did try booting with an XP boot floppy and got no
errors, but then when I tried starting XP it went on to the black screen.
======== ======== ==========

Found a thread where somebody posted a similar problem after this was
posted... and another user posted what is probably the answer:
Computer stops responding with a black screen when you start Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=314503

Windows XP logon screen does not appear and the computer continuously
restarts
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=310396

Thanks anyway.. I believe one of these should answer it.... now to just
backup stuff before trying the fixes...
KWW

 

[T. Waters]

MS did not do this deliberately!
Activation-related shutdowns still leave Safe Mode as an option.
Can you boot from your XP CD?

 

[PA Bear]

I'd check for hijackware.

Help with Hijackware
http://aumha.org/a/parasite.htm
http://aumha.org/a/quickfix.htm
http://aumha.net/viewtopic.php?t=5878
http://mvps.org/winhelp2002/unwanted.htm
http://inetexplorer.mvps.org/data/prevention.htm
http://inetexplorer.mvps.org/data/tshoot.htm
http://www.mvps.org/sramesh2k/Malware_Defence.htm
http://defendingyourmachine.blogspot.com/

 

[KWW]

Yes, I can boot from the XP CD into Repair Console, at least. I will see if
I can get anything resembling the OS to come up. I know from a boot floppy
it dies when I try to get Windows to start (but will boot from the floppy).

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Before I do brain surgery on my Windows XP Pro PC (with SP2), I thought I
should ask the question I almost hate to hear the answer to: how can I tell
if my PC's problem is simply that MS "shut down" my PC when I did the last
Security update?

That's easy. Microsoft can't do any such thing.





--

Bruce Chambers

Help us help you:



You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having
both at once. - RAH

 

[health_wellness]

I think he means M$ crashing his system after trusting one of their
updates, which of course, they do such a thing.....